1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an X-ray computed tomography apparatus which scans a subject to be examined with X-rays and reconstructs image data on the basis of obtained projection data using an ECG-gated reconstruction method.
2. Description of the Related Art
An X-ray computed tomography apparatus provides information about a subject to be examined in the form of images on the basis of the intensities of X-rays transmitted through the subject, and plays important roles in many medical activities such as disease diagnosis and medical and operation planning.
In examination of a fast-moving part using an X-ray computed tomography apparatus, and in particular, cardiac examination, one of the important challenges is to improve the time resolution of images. The main means for achieving this challenge include a combination of the half reconstruction method and the ECG-gated reconstruction method. As is known, according to this method, a half projection data set acquired while an X-ray tube rotates about the phase (cardiac phase) of the movement of the heart which is designated by an operator within the range of 180°+α (where α is the fan angle of a fan-shaped X-ray beam) is extracted. A full projection data set in a 360° range is generated from the extracted half projection data set by a two-dimensional filter (to be simply referred to as a filter hereinafter) using a so-called Parker's two-dimensional weighting factor map. Image data is reconstructed from the full projection data in the 360° range. Note that a cardiac phase is the position of the period obtained by normalizing the indefinite period from an R wave to the next R wave with 0 to 100%, which is expressed in %.
In CT, the time required for a rotation of 360° or the time required for a rotation of (180°+α) in half reconstruction, is restricted as a substantial time resolution in terms of the principle of image reconstruction. Therefore, image quality inevitably deteriorates due to blurring or the like originating from the magnitude of the pulsation of the heart within this substantial time resolution.
In many cases, it has been difficult to designate an optimal cardiac phase, i.e., a cardiac phase exhibiting the least movement of the heart in a time width which corresponds to the substantial time resolution and is centered on the cardiac phase (see Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2004-275440).